


when it's over, but you can't pick up the pieces

by fairyseok_666



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Friends to Enemies, Friendship/Love, GUYS, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, we need to fix the Demetri/Eli tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28512168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairyseok_666/pseuds/fairyseok_666
Summary: He wouldn't do it,Demetri thinks,Eli wouldn't do it.But he's not Eli anymore, hasn't been in a long time.
Relationships: Demetri & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 6
Kudos: 95





	when it's over, but you can't pick up the pieces

**Author's Note:**

> This scene terrified me, so, of course I had to write something about it.

It wasn't new.

Maybe Demetri should've said something; perhaps he should've tried and actually talk about it with Eli. But he didn't. 

And maybe everything that happened, maybe all that rage, all that hate, all that pain and bitterness inside him acting like a bomb and exploding, razing everything in its path and exposing Hawk (that stranger, that _imposter_ , using the face of his best friend) to the world; maybe it was Demetri's fault.

The worst of all is that he noticed it. 

His clenched fists after each beating, the grit of his teeth when he was angry, the look in his eyes... 

The rage contained in them, the hatred in his eyes every time Demetri was busy disinfecting a wound on his face. It burned.

Demetri always looked away first. Maybe trying to forget it, forget that sometimes Eli, _sweet and innocent Eli_ , would look at someone like that. That he could hate that way.

Anyways, even with all that contained hatred, Eli Moskowitz have never looked at Demetri in that way, and he never thought that it somehow would evolve. It was impossible. _It **had** to be._

* * *

It wasn't.

It turned into a nightmare, an actual nightmare from Demetri's own personal hell. And it was all his fault. He can see it clear as water this time; Sam is overconfident and angry, angry with Cobra Kai, with herself. For everything, she wants payback. 

She is hiding behind her rage, just as Eli hid his anger behind his pain before everything, and it's terrible, oh _so wrong_. 

Her eyes burn with contained emotion, and she's not focusing. It's like she somehow forgot, _we don't strike first_ , he wants to say. _We can't strike first_ , and _this can only end badly_. 

But he doesn't speak. He doesn't raise his head and talk cause Demetri's also tired, so tired of this karate dojos war bullshit. And if this stupid fight will end it, then so be it.

So it starts, and he only uses defence, stands his ground in a corner and blocks and dodges attacks. But it isn't enough, _he's never enough_ , and somehow Eli ends before him.

And Eli smirks. 

Demetri sees all that hate, all that rage, all those horrible emotions that terrified him before and terrify him now.

He knows that he doesn't stand a chance, and he wants it all to be like before.

He wants to stand in the school's halls while saying, _oh, how the mighty have fallen,_ but with Eli holding his hand and Miguel kicking Kyler's ass, and Sam smiling at his friend. 

But it's stupid, a stupid dream just like him. Cause Miguel is stuck in a wheelchair, Sam is having a panic attack (yes, he knows it, he know the signs, what kind of friend would he be-) in a God's forgotten corner of this dark place, and Eli has him pinned to the cold ground with a grip that will definitely leave bruises.

And then one of his nightmares talks. 

"Finish him!"

And it doesn't sink in, he doesn't understand, finish him? What would they do if he's already defeated? He's not a threat anymore and everyone can see that. 

"Do it! He deserves it..."

Eli pushes his arm a little more, something that may be harmless, but it is enough for the realization to hit him.

They want Eli to break his arm. They want him to-

"Finish him!" she says again, and Demetri can **_fucking hear_** the amusement in her voice.

His heart is beating so fast in his ribcage, and for a moment, he thinks that maybe this is how that little bird from the zoo felt when he held it.

Demetri's gonna fucking have a heart attack and he's gonna die. His eyes are filled with tears, and he can't believe it- But he has to be sure.

"No! Please, stop!" the bruising grip is like steel on him. On his shoulder, on his arm. And he wants to scream, he wants to attack, he wants to _do anything_. But there's something else, something entirely different to everything he had felt before keeping him on the floor. It's maybe something more significant than the fear itself that he thought when Eli was chasing him through the school halls.

"Eli, stop, stop!" he actually is begging, and honest to god, doesn't care anymore.

"Eli, it's me! Don't do it, no!" he tries one more time. One more time, before he can't associate Eli with comfort anymore. Before the hugs and the shy kisses and the evenings reading comics and watching TV turn themselves into something else...

Into kicks, into punches, into bruising griping, into pure terror. "Help me!" he screams again, to Sam, to the workers, to fucking anyone; and his voice is shaking.

"Do it!" he hears a stranger's voice.

"Finish him!" the devil snarks.

"He deserves it!" someone else says.

And they believe it, they actually believe it, and maybe this is all his fault, perhaps-

But no.

 _He wouldn't do it,_ Demetri thinks, _Eli wouldn't do it_.

"Do it, Hawk!"

But he's not Eli anymore, hasn't been in a long time.

"It's fine, I'll go!" and that's his last attempt.

It happens so fast, it's like... An out-of-body experience. For a moment, he can feel nothing. He hears a disgusting loud crack ringing in his ears, buzzing in his head and vibing through all his body. Yes. 

But he can feel nothing.

And then it all comes back, with a loud and painful crash. Kyler's beatings had never been like that; they were bruising, yes, they were brutal, they were a constant reminder of the necessity of fear. But this? This was only sadistic.

Demetri feels it in all his body. The pain radiating from his bone itself, making his arm numb, making his mind hazy. His blood rushes through all his body, searching the wound and making so much noise inside of him, his eyes can't stop the tears anymore, and they just fall to the ground. Someone is screaming - _perhaps it is him_ \- and it's just so much. 

_I would never make you cry_ , he remembers young Eli saying. They are hiding in a closet in Demetri's house, and through the pain, the memories and the screams, he can hear the low chuckle that leaves his friend's lips, and maybe that's the worst, that he can't actually hate him like he wants, that he still considers this other twisted version of Eli _his friend..._

Even if that's how Hawk leaves him behind, just a broken, disgusting sobbing mess in the ground.


End file.
